Hi,
On Fri, Feb 01, 2008 at 02:23:27AM -0800, Kurt Oestreich wrote:
> I read your web pages, and the closest thing to a contact for the debian
> documentation project, which appears to need a wee bit of help, is this
> mailing list.
Yes.
> I assume this is because of the anarchistic nature of Debian development.
Also lack of time and manpower as the volunteer project.
> However, I am a skilled technical documentation author/editor, with a
> smidge of programming and formatting skills (formatting man pages is not
> my thing, but if pointed in the right direction, I have a high degree of
> confidence that I can figure it out).
English proofreading is nice thing for me. I am the main author of
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/
I am updating it currently with new source tree or aproach easy for non
programmer to help.
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianReference
Here you can check generated html or wiki page and if you find issues,
you can fix it in wiki. You have to sign up for wiki though.
To regenerate html, you have to bug me now.
> And if it really needs to be said, I have a good comprehension of unix,
> since I have used it since the early 80's, and hence have a strong
> familiarity with the command line, operating system architecture,
> hardware issues, etc.. I even know Fortran 4 and Snobol, if that is any
> indication of how ancient I am.
I may be as ancient but maybe you beat me. I was using ANSI FORTRAN but
no Snobol.
> In any case, a large number of Debian documentation projects seem to be
> completely stagnant.
>
> If you need assistance with one or more of these documentation areas,
> email me.
Yes :-)
> I can produce copious amounts of highly readable documentation in
> relatively short time, assuming that someone somewhere can give me a
> functional description of how the piece works. If the only information
> is, "try the program and document any buttons and drop downs you find,"
> I can do that as well. I can also take documentation that looks like it
> was crapped out of a mad monkey factory and turn it into something
> comprehensible.
I am a mad monkey :) (English is not my mother tangue.)
> Everything has to start somewhere.
>
> If I have breached some form of debian communication protocols, please
> forgive my obtuseness. I have been disabled since 2005, so I might not
> be completely lucid with regards to social pleasantries.
>
> For what it's worth.
Welcome to Debian.